Everyone needs to eat.

Whatever your reason for coming to Gloomhaven, out here on the edge of the world, that simple fact is never going to change. A mercenary can’t fight on an empty stomach.

So when Jekserah, a Valrath woman wearing a red cloak and enough gold jewelry to keep you fed for a decade, approaches you in the Sleeping Lion and offers to pay you ten gold coins to track down a thief and retrieve some stolen goods…well, it seems like as good an excuse as any to sober up and start paying off your tab.

“This thief has taken some important documents,”

says the red-skinned merchant, her tail whipping about in agitation.

“I don’t care what you do to him. Just bring back what is mine.”

Based on Jekserah’s description, it was easy enough to knock around a few alley thugs and get a location of the thieves’ hideout.

You don’t find yourself as a mercenary way out in Gloomhaven without knowing how to crack a few skulls.

So your target is the Black Barrow. Sounds like a lovely place.

Scenario 1 – The Black Barrow

The hill is easy enough to find—a short journey past the New Market Gate and you see it jutting out on the edge of the

Corpsewood, looking like a rat under a rug.

Moving closer you see the mound is formed from a black earth. Its small, overgrown entrance presents a worn set of stone stairs leading down into the darkness.

As you descend, you gratefully notice light emanating from below. Unfortunately, the light is accompanied by the unmistakable stench of death.

You contemplate what kind of thieves would make their camp in such a horrid place as you reach the bottom of the steps.

Here you find your answer—a rough group of cutthroats who don’t seem to have taken very kindly to your sudden appearance.

One in the back matches the description of your quarry.

“Take care of these unfortunates,”

he says, backing out of the room. You can vaguely make out his silhouette as he retreats down a hallway and through a door to his left.

“Well, it’s not every day we get people stupid enough to hand-deliver their valuables to us,”

grins one of the larger bandits, unsheathing a rusty blade.

“We’ll be killing you now.”

Joke’s on them. If you had any valuables, you probably wouldn’t be down here in the first place.

With that, the party cleared out the bandits and skeletons from the upper floor of the Barrow and looted a chest that offered a map to an Island off the coast that looks an interesting location for further adventure.

Conclusion

With the last bandit dead, you take a moment to catch your breath and steel yourself against the visions of living remains ripping at your flesh. Your target is not among the dead, and you shudder to think what horrors still await you in the catacombs below.

The party descended the stairs but were beaten back by a large number of Enemies below. Deciding that caution is needed and maybe some Divine assistance the group returned to Gloomhaven to rest and make offerings for divine aid.

Scenario 2 – Black Lair

The stench of death and rotting flesh gets thicker as you kick past the corpses of your foes and head deeper into the underground burial site. Guided by the muffled sounds of conversation, you find your way through the maze of crypts and burst into a small room full of hard-faced bandits, all with bows at the ready.

They’re clearly guarding something. You must be in the right place.

You open the door to a large crypt littered with coffins. At the back stands your quarry. He fits the description, but there is something previously unnoticed in his eyes—a dark otherworldly force.

“Who are you to think you can interrupt the work of the Gloom?”

A dark energy engulfs his hands as he speaks.

“I will show you what you are dealing with!”

Conclusion

Sifting through the carnage left by the battle, you find a cache at the back of the room containing the scrolls you were hired to collect. You can’t help but rifle through them a bit, but find that the writing upon them is in some unknown archaic language. One thing that does jump out at you, however, is a map of the northern countryside. A bend in the Still River is clearly marked as a point of interest. Contemplating whether you want to find out more about this so-called “Gloom,” you decide that the spot could be a point of interest for you, as well.

But that can be forgotten for the moment. You pack up the papers and head back to Gloomhaven to collect your reward. Meeting Jekserah once again at the Sleeping Lion, you hand over the papers and are paid the agreed-upon amount.

“You know,”

she whispers to you softly under the bustle of the tavern.

“If you’re interested,

I may have another job for you. A tribe of Inox in the Dagger Forest has ransacked a couple of my caravans headed to the Capital.

“I told the militia, but they do nothing,”

she spits.

“I can point you in the direction of their encampment. If you can make an example of them, I will pay you even more.”

She places a crude map of the forest on the table and stands up, her jewelry clinking with the movement.

“Come find me when it is done.”

About the Author

I was born in 1965, I have been a member of the Club since 1982. I play mainly boardgames and Role Playing games but I also love Ancient and Medieval games. I started gaming when I was old enough to stand an Airfix Soldier up on my parents carpet. I moved up to Model Making kits and eventually found Donald Featherstone wargame rules at the local library, since then my life has always included gaming, be it online or social face to face gaming at the club.

Events Booked in the Next 7 Days

Gloomhaven is a game of Euro-inspired tactical combat in a persistent world of shifting motives. Players will take on the role of a wandering adventurer with their own special set of skills and their own reasons for traveling to this dark corner of the world. Players must work together out of necessity to clear out menacing dungeons and forgotten ruins. In the process, they will enhance their abilities with experience and loot, discover new locations to explore and plunder, and expand an ever-branching story fueled by the decisions they make. This is a game with a persistent and changing world that is ideally played over many game sessions. After a scenario, players will make decisions on what to do, which will determine how the story continues, kind of like a “Choose Your Own Adventure” book. Playing through a scenario is a cooperative affair where players will fight against automated monsters using an innovative card system to determine the order of play and what a player does on their turn. Each turn, a player chooses two cards to play out of their hand. The number on the top card determines their initiative for the round. Each card also has a top and bottom power, and when it is a player’s turn in the initiative order, they determine whether to use the top power of one card and the bottom power of the other, or vice-versa. Players must be careful, though, because over time they will permanently lose cards from their hands. If they take too long to clear a dungeon, they may end up exhausted and be forced to retreat.

We play a range of Boardgames and Small Scale Skirmish games including Bolt Action Saga Game Of Thrones Team Yankee Flames of War The board games we play range in style from wargames to Euro Games and typically play up to 7 players but most of the time just 5